Have seen a dozen "obvious cheaters" (invincible shields, invincible hull, one-shot-to-kill weapons) and perhaps another dozen of "highly suspected" players (weapons more powerful than they should be, apparent 4 pips in SYS while firing lasers continuously, etc).
There are also plenty of discussions on Internet regarding how to hack in CQC...
So yes - it is a "hackers paradise". The only thing that keeps the hackers away is apparent uselessness of the Arena/CQC. (Not much in-game money, no global leader-board and nobody really believes in the $100K tournament..) So most hackers tried it, got bored and moved on.